Thursday, January 2nd, 2014

Last night I watched the 2012 movie Brooklyn Castle (IMDB 7.3) on Netflix.

BROOKLYN CASTLE tells the stories of five members of the chess team at a below-the-poverty-line inner city junior high school that has won more national championships than any other in the country. The film follows the challenges these kids face in their personal lives as well as on the chessboard, and is as much about the sting of their losses as it is about the anticipation of their victories.

are the chess team... welcome to I.S. 318

I loved it!  I thought it was a great movie.  Instead of the dreck I watched in Computer Chess, and the time wasting repetitivness of showing The Turk (a hint at cheating?) over and over again in Game Over: Kasparov and the Machine, this movie shows what a real chess tournament looks like.  And what team chess is; reminding me of when I used to play for the Sears team in the Chicago Industrial Chess League back in the 1970s.

 

I went to bed at 11:15, got up once during the night, woke up to Lionel’s radio at 6:15 and finally woke/got up at 7:30.

I had coffee and a croissant at Panaderia Los Mejores.  (I don’t know why everyone here fills coffee cups all the way to the d**n top!  It’s almost impossible to carry it without spilling some on your hand.)   :-)

I waited in the express line at the bank from 9:20 to 9:45 to make my medical insurance payment.  I’m not sure this line was any faster today.  Next time I’ll try to remember to make note of who is the last person in the regular line to see if I get to my teller before they do.

I see my Social Security deposit has been made so I now have money to pay my rent and other bills.

I emailed my lawyer, James, that I could pay him what I owe him as soon as he informs me he has received my passport with the new Pensionado Visa inside.

I finally got in touch with Beatriz and we agreed I would bring my dirty laundry to the corner store tomorrow morning.

I took my iPad with me to LM and continued reading in my new chess book.  For lunch, about 1:30-2:00 I had a Frisburrito and medium Pepsi from Frisby for 9,900 ($5.21).  Finally, about 3pm I received an email from James that he had the visa and I could pick it up as long as I confirmed a time with him.  I went back to my apartment and called him and got the ok to come over now.  I then called my dentist to confirm that I could pay him today.  He said he wasn’t in the office but he would be in the area and to just let him know when I’m there and he would meet me.

I caught a Circular 302 bus and got off just down the hill from Oviedo CC.  Dr. Rendon called me and I found out he was in the food court at Oviedo so I stopped there first.  He was having ice cream with his 8 year old daughter Martina who spoke a little English.  I asked her if she likes futbol (no), tennis (no), chess (no), swimming (yes).  I don’t remember exactly how much I still owe him but I remembered it was a little less than 400mil so I gave him 350mil ($184.21).

I walked up a couple blocks to James’ office, picked up my passport with my new visa in it and some other papers and gave him the balance I owed him - 980mil ($515.79).  It felt good not to have to worry about carrying all that money around.  From his office I found a little shortcut down to Avenida Poblado where it meets Calle 4 Sur.  (All over the place I kept seeing these little cardboard circles with a little hole in the middle.  I think somehow they are connected with the fireworks or firecrackers.)  I arrived at FFSS about 5:15 and had one of his burgers with potato chips and a Coke for 13mil and left a 2mil tip.  A very tasty burger!

On my way down the hill to the bus stop I bought an arequipe churro and stopped into a little bookstore that sells only books in English.  The funny thing is that I saw the book I’m currently reading – Debt of Honor in hardcover - for 20mil, almost the same price I paid for it on my Nook.

I took another overcrowded, stuffy bus back to Viva CC.  (At one point it stopped to pick someone up and a man outside said to the bus driver “donde de metro” – “where is the metro”?  In the few seconds it took for me to realize he had no Spanish accent, probably spoke English, and I saw we were across the street from the metro station the bus took off before I could say something.  Sigh; I felt bad about that!)  Again, I was overheated by the time I got off the bus.

Back at the apartment I had to email Reina to make plans for tomorrow.  Before I can get my new Cedula I probably have to again put money into a special account in a specific bank for Immigration.  Reina is coming over about 11am and we’ll make our plans from there.